This invention relates to the propulsion and steering of paddle wheel boats, more particularly a propulsion and steering unit which may be fitted to any existing craft or to any specially designed craft, to which addition of said unit renders it capable of navigating any and all navigable waterways, as well as, waterways heretofore considered difficult or impossible to navigate, such waterways are shallow and contain logs, stumps, sand-bars, mud-flats, vegetation in the water, growing out of the water and mud and hanging over the waterway or streams, and such waterways comprise swamps and marshes with dense aquatic growth such as moss, cat-tails and saw-grass, or heavy brush growth with low hanging limbs.
No other single craft available today has the capacity to navigate or traverse, with ease and maneuverability, the wide range of terrain which can be traversed by the vessel of this invention. An airboat is capable of traversing shallow, dense aquatic growth marshes. However, due to the excessive height of the propeller cage, they cannot traverse under low hanging limbs. Due to the propulsion by movement of air, the airboat has very low traction and no starting traction on mud-flats, sand-bars etc. Also, in most areas, the excessive noise of the airboat is highly objectionable. Craft, such as go-devils, equipped with long, swiveling drive shaft and a conventional propeller, are capable of traversing fairly shallow water and low hanging limbs, but become fowled in aquatic vegetation such as moss and saw-grass. Existing paddle wheel boat designs experience steering problems when attempting to traverse marshy areas of dense moss and saw-grass growth due to the fact that the steering is mounted at the stern of the boat and is designed to maneuver the stern of the boat to the side to align with the bow of the boat to effect change of direction. Another problem common to present paddle wheel boat design is that the entire weight of the propulsion device is cantilevered behind the stern of the boat causing a severe imbalance of weight distribution toward the stern of the craft. This limits the craft to very slow speeds of operation because, when powered up, the nose of the boat rears upward and the paddle wheel starts to dig in and becomes submerged past the point of effective operation in that an excessive downward thrust is transmitted to the stern of the craft by the upswing of the deeply submerged propelling paddles.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a means of traversing all varieties of terrain described herein with a single craft. Moreover, the vessel is capable of traversing such terrain with ease and without damage to elements of the vessel. The vessel easily traverses shallow, heavily vegetated waterways.
It is another object of the invention to provide a highly maneuverable paddle wheel boat. This is accomplished, in part, through the relatively light weight of the unit affording a shallow draft boat, but mainly accomplished by the large bow mounted rudder.
It is another object of the invention to provide a unit with uniform weight distribution of the members to maintain a level trim under all operation conditions thereby maximizing the efficiency of the design.
It is another object of the invention to provide a safe, economical, dependable, low maintenance, quiet and efficient means of traversing difficult, as well as common, waterways for the purposes of recreation, hunting, fishing, exploration, search and rescue operations, or any other effort requiring access to dense, swampy or marshy areas.
U.S. Pat. No. 254,878 to Little, issued Mar. 14, 1882, shows "train boats" which are connected in series with a rear mounted paddle wheel and steam engine and have a pivotable fixed front rudder and side flanges or rudders for navigating low rivers.
U.S. Pat. No. 618,555 to Belz, issued Jan. 31, 1899, shows a pedal operated paddle wheel propulsion system for a boat.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,294,104 to Waddington, issued Aug. 25, 1942, shows an inboard engine operating a dual paddle wheel with springy blades for a hydroplane boat.
U.S. Patent to Thornburg, issued Jun. 28, 1955, shows a rear mounted engine and paddle wheel for a row boat.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,170,437 to Kilmer, issued Feb. 23, 1965, shows a dual paddle wheel system with independent gearing for a pontoon boat.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,922,988 to Caton et. al issued Dec. 2, 1975, shows a detachable steering rudder attached at the rear of a canoe with pontoons.
British Specification 926,224 by Greenfield, shows a rear mounted engine, paddle wheel and steering rudder for a power boat.